British Rail Class 357
Encyclopedia
The British Rail
Class 357 "Electrostar" alternating current
(AC) electric multiple unit
s (EMUs) were built by ADtranz
(now owned by Bombardier Transportation
) at their Litchurch Lane Works
in Derby
, England, in two batches from 1999 to 2002 at a cost of approximately £
292 million. They were the first member of the Electrostar
family, which also includes Classes 375
, 376
, 377
, 378
, and 379
, and is the most numerous type of EMU built in the post-privatisation period of Britain's railways. It shares the same basic design, bodyshell and core structure as the Turbostar
diesel multiple unit
(DMU), which is in turn the most common post-privatisation diesel multiple unit
family, and both evolved from the Class 168 Clubman
design by ADtranz.
s, upon which bodyside panels are mounted followed by a single piece roof, again made from extruded sections. The car ends (cabs) are made from glass-reinforced plastic
and steel, and are huck-bolted onto the main car bodies. Underframe components are collected in 'rafts', which are bolted into slots on the underframe extrusion. The mostly aluminium alloy body gives light weight to help acceleration and energy efficiency. Electrostar units have a shorter 20 metre version of the Turbostar's 23 metre body as Electrostars have 3 or 4 cars per unit rather than 2 or 3 for Turbostars.
Class 357 units were built with 100 mph (161 km/h) capability, although the maximum line speed on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
(the Essex Thameside franchise) is at present only 75 mph (121 km/h). They all have air conditioning
, air suspension, CCTV, standard class 3+2 Chapman seating throughout, 28 computers, sliding plug door
s, and rheostatic air disc brakes, which now have regenerative capacity. As with all Electrostar units, they use insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) AC motors. They have Tightlock
fully automatic couplers but are only interoperable within their own class with other Class 357 units. There are orange LED
dot matrix display
s at the front of each unit which shows the time due at the destination and the name of the destination, e.g. "17.10 Shoebury", or "Not in Service" or "Empty to Depot" as necessary. The time due at the destination updates to the new time due if the train is delayed. There are also LED display
s inside, at the end of each carriage above the gangway which give route and customer service information.
in March 1997 to replace the Class 310
slam-door units, and allow the return of 18 hired Class 317
units to their other franchise WAGN. Construction started in 1999, and they are currently leased by c2c
from Porterbrook
. They were built in the green LTS Rail colour scheme, painted with a white livery with dark green doors and underskirt (bottom body panels). Their interior consists of dark green seat moquette with alternating rows of large flecks of light blue and light green, light green plastic seat tops with slots in the side for reservation tickets (which are not used) with dark green insets, a stone pattern linoleum
floor, purple plastic interior, light green handrails and metal luggage racks with large circular perforations and light green edges, and dark green stickers on the inter-carriage gangway doors. The "door out of order" display is in between the interior door buttons, with the door close button above and the door open button below, unlike in the 357/2 units.
All 44 units were due to enter service by 1 November 1999 but were marred by late deliveries due to safety certification problems and reliability problems, meaning they were delivered during 2000, and leading to their temporary withdrawal in October 2001. As a result, ADtranz
built two further units free of charge, bringing the total to 46 units.
Units are formed of four vehicles, and are numbered in the range 357001-046. Each unit is formed of two outer driving motors (each powered by two ADtranz asynchronous traction motors), an intermediate motor (powered by two ADtranz asynchronous traction motors) and an intermediate trailer. The technical description of the formation is Driving Motor Open Standard A (DMOS-A)+Motor Standard Open (MSO)+Pantograph Trailer Open Standard Lavatory (PTOSL)+Driving Motor Open Standard B (DMOS-B). Individual vehicles are numbered as follows:
units. Construction started in 2001, and they were delivered between September 2001 and May 2002. They are owned by Angel Trains
and leased by c2c, at an initial cost of £900 a day (including rental and maintenance). Due to the rebranding, they have a white livery with grey doors, and are internally branded to the c2c purple colour scheme with magenta
handrails, magenta stickers on the inter-carriage gangway doors with c2c branding: "culture2club2commuters2culture2club2", and a light grey linoleum floor with white, dark grey and light purple flecks. The "door out of order" display is above the door close button, which is above the door open button, unlike in the 357/0 units.
The last slam-door units were withdrawn on 31 March 2003, resulting in c2c being the first train operating company
(TOC) to replace its entire fleet with new trains.
Units are numbered in the range 357201-228. The formation of each 4-car unit is identical to that of the Class 357/0 units. Individual vehicles are numbered as follows:
stickers applied with two prototype variants of the proposed purplish blue
and magenta
c2c livery at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane Works in Derby
. They were delivered to East Ham EMU Depot for evaluation. Each set of vinyl stickers cost about £40,000. Rollout of the new livery on the whole fleet began by mid-2002, and was completed over the next three months. Hence, although the underlying paintwork and interiors of the two sub-classes were different when delivered, their exterior appearance is identical, and the only way to distinguish them externally is by their numbering. When the Quiet Zone car was introduced in each set, this was marked on the exterior of the doors by a magenta and white sticker.
On 19 April 2004, the unusually large rate of increase in atmospheric pressure
led to an airlock and failure of hydraulic pressure on eight of the Class 357 trains which caused their computer's software to lower their pantographs
and so be unable to collect power from the overhead lines
, causing service disruption. However, after their teething problems were sorted out, they have since been the most reliable fleet of EMUs in the United Kingdom, winning Best Modern Era EMU at the Golden Spanners Awards from 2005 to 2007, for an average annual miles per casualty (MPC) figure of 43,180 in 2005, 37,391 in 2006, and 45,459 in 2007 (defined as the number of miles a train runs before a defect develops causing 5 minutes or longer delay).
The Class 357 units are all normally maintained by Bombardier service technicians at c2c's East Ham Depot
, which won the Golden Spanner Award for Maintenance Team of the Year (Rolling Stock) at the Annual National Rail Awards in 2005 and 2006 and their Shoeburyness depot.
On 14 December 2005, c2c's East Ham depot began putting advertising vinyl wraps on some carriages, starting with branding the MSO intermediate trailer car 74716 in set 357 216 as a 'Cough-Free Zone' by the cough syrup makers Benylin
for the winter. This has not been done for quite some time.
In June 2009, c2c and Bombardier began a repainting programme on the Class 357 units beginning with 357 203. When the vinyl wraps were taken off the Class 357 units, slight corrosion caused by water getting trapped behind the vinyl was found in the aluminium around the doors, so a bodywork maintenance and repair programme was carried out. The corrosion was treated by rubbing the aluminium down and repainting it with two-pack paint. More serious corrosion caused by water seeping in through a poorly-sealed join between panels was found behind several panels on the lower part of the vehicle bodysides, which had spread to the outside. A thick, tight mastic seal was introduced between the panels to prevent this issue from re-occurring. To save money during construction, stainless steel bolts were used to secure the external aluminium panels in place; however, this resulted in galvanic corrosion of the more reactive aluminium, so the bolts have been replaced by aluminium ones. Salts in water catalyse corrosion, a problem for the c2c fleet as they run beside the sea.
After repair at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane Works in Derby, 357 203 was repainted and re-entered service on 30 July 2009. Similar work was carried out on the rest of the fleet over the next 21 months at Bombardier's Ilford Depot, where the units were repainted into their original white colour, but with dark blue doors, and branded with both "national express" and "c2c" logos in lower-case. The "Quiet Zone" stickers are now white with sky-blue lettering instead of magenta with white lettering. c2c ran a special "Farewell to the Blue Train" railtour service to commemorate the last day of running in passenger service of the blue livery on Saturday 5 March 2011.
During the winters of both 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, fine powdery snow settling on the Auxiliary Control Modules (ACMs) melted by warmer air led to water leaking into the ACMs, causing damage and their shutdown, subsequently causing passenger information system, heating, and lighting failure in some carriages. Several units also had to run in service with fewer traction motors working. The ACMs were modified in six ways to try and prevent this from recurring.
system which had been trialled for many months on the Class 357 fleet. In March 2007, 357 028 returned from the Czech Republic, having gained safety certification, and c2c began fitting the regenerative braking systems to the rest of its Class 357 fleet, becoming the first UK train operator to do so. On 3 June 2007, the eve of World Environment Day, unit 357 010 was given an all-over green vinyl sticker livery with magenta doors and the tagline
:
to highlight the completion of the scheme, which has given energy savings of up to 21%. 357 010 lost its green livery in March 2011 as part of the fleet's corrosion repair and repainting project.
. Trains are generally formed of a single unit (4 cars) or two units (8 cars) working in multiple during off-peak times, and strengthened to two or three units (12 cars) during the morning and evening peak times. 71 of the 74 units are required to run the current normal timetable.
Five units were loaned to sister National Express Group
operator National Express East Anglia (then branded 'one' Railway) for a period ending in 2006 to accommodate the transfer of three Class 321/3
units to Silverlink
(themselves to cover for Class 321/4 units hired to Central Trains
). The units were generally used on London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria
services on the Great Eastern Main Line
(GEML).
installed using equipment from Nomad Digital and T-Mobile, and tested for a little-publicised 6 month trial from 14 May 2007. The service was free to use during the trial, but there has been no further news of c2c's plans for Wi-Fi access. Full rollout of the Wi-Fi service may have been delayed for financial reasons.
In November 2006, 357 028 had to have its front valance removed whilst it was undergoing testing at Velim in the Czech Republic after it ran over two dogs and a deer, and almost ran over a local hunter, which were not expecting a train to pass at up to 100 mph (160.9 km/h) as the test track is not used very often.
On 9 December 2006, two Class 357 units, 357 002 and 357 043, were involved in a minor incident at East Ham Depot when one unit scraped down the side of the other. The undamaged driving car of 357 002 was used to temporarily replace the damaged driving car of 357 043 to form a hybrid unit, which was renumbered 357 099 under the TOPS
system and remained in service with a guard due to the position of the Driver Only Operation (D.O.O.) mirrors. The damaged units, formed mostly of 357 002 with the driving car of 357 043, were renumbered 357 098 and sent to Crewe Electric TMD
for repairs. Both trains were repaired and then had their normal numbering restored. They were due to re-enter service on Friday 5 October 2007, but actually re-entered service over the weekend of 13/14 October.
These accidents and units 357 028 and 357 045 being out of service at the same time led to two spare Class 321/4
units, 321 408 and 321 428, being loaned from sister National Express Group train operator Silverlink
for three months for use at Monday-Friday peak hours on diagrams between Fenchurch Street-Pitsea via Rainham and Fenchurch Street-Laindon to cover for the unavailable Class 357 units. The Class 321 units were used with guards as they are incompatible with the positioning of c2c's face-on Driver Only Operation (D.O.O.) mirrors. http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/showthread.php?thread=2096 http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/showthread.php?thread=2661
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
Class 357 "Electrostar" alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
(AC) electric multiple unit
Electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...
s (EMUs) were built by ADtranz
Adtranz
ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation , commonly known under its brand Adtranz, was a multi-national rail transport equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the USA....
(now owned by Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
) at their Litchurch Lane Works
Derby Carriage and Wagon Works
Derby Carriage and Wagon Works was built by the Midland Railway in Derby, England. The plant has been through many changes of ownership and is currently owned by Bombardier Transportation, a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc. of Canada. As of 2011 it is the only remaining passenger rolling stock...
in Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
, England, in two batches from 1999 to 2002 at a cost of approximately £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
292 million. They were the first member of the Electrostar
Electrostar
Electrostar is the name given to a series of related electric multiple-unit passenger trains manufactured by Bombardier Transportation at their Litchurch Lane Works in Derby, England...
family, which also includes Classes 375
British Rail Class 375
The British Rail Class 375 Electrostar electric multiple unit train was built by Bombardier Transportation at their Derby Works, from 1999 to 2005...
, 376
British Rail Class 376
The Class 376 Suburban Electrostar is a model of electric multiple-unit passenger train manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. It is part of the Electrostar family, which are the most common EMUs introduced since the privatisation of British Rail...
, 377
British Rail Class 377
The Class 377 Electrostar is an electric multiple unit type built by Bombardier Transportation at their Derby Works, from 2001 to present. The Electrostar family, which also includes Classes 357, 375, 376, 378, and 379, is the most numerous type of EMU built in the post-privatisation period of...
, 378
British Rail Class 378
The Class 378 Capitalstar is a type of electric multiple-unit train, part of Bombardier Transportation's Electrostar family. These trains are operating on the new London Overground network...
, and 379
British Rail Class 379
The Class 379 Electrostar is a British electric multiple-unit train type ordered in April 2009 for Stansted Express services operated by National Express East Anglia . The trains will also be used on services between , and...
, and is the most numerous type of EMU built in the post-privatisation period of Britain's railways. It shares the same basic design, bodyshell and core structure as the Turbostar
Turbostar
Turbostar is the name given to a family of diesel multiple units built by Bombardier Transportation at their Litchurch Lane Works in Derby, England...
diesel multiple unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
(DMU), which is in turn the most common post-privatisation diesel multiple unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
family, and both evolved from the Class 168 Clubman
British Rail Class 168
The Class 168 Clubman is a diesel multiple-unit train used on services between London and the Midlands.-Description:The units were built in several batches from 1997 onwards. The first batch of units was classified 168/0 under TOPS and resembled the Class 165 units previously built by BREL at York...
design by ADtranz.
Description
The Clubman/Turbostar/Electrostar platform is a modular design, optimised for speedy manufacture and easy maintenance. It consists of an underframe, which is created by seam-welding a number of aluminium alloy extrusionExtrusion
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section...
s, upon which bodyside panels are mounted followed by a single piece roof, again made from extruded sections. The car ends (cabs) are made from glass-reinforced plastic
Glass-reinforced plastic
Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....
and steel, and are huck-bolted onto the main car bodies. Underframe components are collected in 'rafts', which are bolted into slots on the underframe extrusion. The mostly aluminium alloy body gives light weight to help acceleration and energy efficiency. Electrostar units have a shorter 20 metre version of the Turbostar's 23 metre body as Electrostars have 3 or 4 cars per unit rather than 2 or 3 for Turbostars.
Class 357 units were built with 100 mph (161 km/h) capability, although the maximum line speed on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway is an English railway line linking Fenchurch Street railway station in the City of London with northeast London and the entire length of the northern Thames Gateway area of southern Essex. It is currently known as the Essex Thameside Route by Network Rail...
(the Essex Thameside franchise) is at present only 75 mph (121 km/h). They all have air conditioning
Air conditioning
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
, air suspension, CCTV, standard class 3+2 Chapman seating throughout, 28 computers, sliding plug door
Plug door
A plug door is a door designed to seal itself by taking advantage of pressure difference on its two sides and is typically used on pressurised aircraft...
s, and rheostatic air disc brakes, which now have regenerative capacity. As with all Electrostar units, they use insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) AC motors. They have Tightlock
Tightlock coupling
Tightlock coupling or titelok coupler is an Association of American Railroads tooth and toothbrush automatic coupler of which there are two types:...
fully automatic couplers but are only interoperable within their own class with other Class 357 units. There are orange LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
dot matrix display
Dot matrix display
A dot matrix display is a display device used to display information on machines, clocks, railway departure indicators and many other devices requiring a simple display device of limited resolution...
s at the front of each unit which shows the time due at the destination and the name of the destination, e.g. "17.10 Shoebury", or "Not in Service" or "Empty to Depot" as necessary. The time due at the destination updates to the new time due if the train is delayed. There are also LED display
LED display
An LED display is a flat panel display, which uses light-emitting diodes as a video display. An LED panel is a small display, or a component of a larger display. They are typically used outdoors in store signs and billboards, and in recent years have also become commonly used in destination signs...
s inside, at the end of each carriage above the gangway which give route and customer service information.
Class 357/0
The first batch of 44 Class 357/0 units were ordered at a cost of £200 million by Prism RailPrism Rail
Prism Rail was established in 1995 to acquire passenger rail franchises being made available under the Government's rail privatisation programme. It bid for 17 franchises, was shortlisted for 12 and was ultimately awarded 4, which were LTS Rail, Wales and West, WAGN and Valley Lines Trains.Of the...
in March 1997 to replace the Class 310
British Rail Class 310
The British Rail Class 310 is a slam-door, alternating current electric multiple unit introduced in 1963 as part of the West Coast Main Line electrification project. They were initially classified as Class AM10 units before the introduction of the TOPS classification system. Constructed at BR's...
slam-door units, and allow the return of 18 hired Class 317
British Rail Class 317
The British Rail Class 317 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BREL York in two batches, from 1981-82 and 1985-87. They were the first of several classes of British Rail EMU to be based on the all-steel Mark 3 bodyshell, departing from the "PEP"-aluminium design which had...
units to their other franchise WAGN. Construction started in 1999, and they are currently leased by c2c
C2c
c2c is a British train operating company that is part of the National Express Group. It provides passenger rail services on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line from Fenchurch Street railway station in the City of London to east London and the entire length of the northern Thames Gateway...
from Porterbrook
Porterbrook
Porterbrook is one of the three major ROSCOs in the United Kingdom...
. They were built in the green LTS Rail colour scheme, painted with a white livery with dark green doors and underskirt (bottom body panels). Their interior consists of dark green seat moquette with alternating rows of large flecks of light blue and light green, light green plastic seat tops with slots in the side for reservation tickets (which are not used) with dark green insets, a stone pattern linoleum
Linoleum
Linoleum is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil , pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials.The finest linoleum floors,...
floor, purple plastic interior, light green handrails and metal luggage racks with large circular perforations and light green edges, and dark green stickers on the inter-carriage gangway doors. The "door out of order" display is in between the interior door buttons, with the door close button above and the door open button below, unlike in the 357/2 units.
All 44 units were due to enter service by 1 November 1999 but were marred by late deliveries due to safety certification problems and reliability problems, meaning they were delivered during 2000, and leading to their temporary withdrawal in October 2001. As a result, ADtranz
Adtranz
ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation , commonly known under its brand Adtranz, was a multi-national rail transport equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the USA....
built two further units free of charge, bringing the total to 46 units.
Units are formed of four vehicles, and are numbered in the range 357001-046. Each unit is formed of two outer driving motors (each powered by two ADtranz asynchronous traction motors), an intermediate motor (powered by two ADtranz asynchronous traction motors) and an intermediate trailer. The technical description of the formation is Driving Motor Open Standard A (DMOS-A)+Motor Standard Open (MSO)+Pantograph Trailer Open Standard Lavatory (PTOSL)+Driving Motor Open Standard B (DMOS-B). Individual vehicles are numbered as follows:
- 67651-67696 - DMOS-A
- 74151-74196 - MSO
- 74051-74096 - PTOSL
- 67751-67796 - DMOS-B
Class 357/2
Prism Rail was purchased by National Express in September 2000, and the franchise was rebranded as c2c once the Class 357/0 units were in service. The second batch of 28 Class 357/2 units were ordered at a cost of £92 million by c2c in 2000 primarily to replace the remaining Class 312British Rail Class 312
The British Rail Class 312 is a type of alternating current electric multiple unit built in 1975-1978 for use on outer-suburban passenger services. It was the last class of multiple unit to be constructed with the British Rail Mark 2 bodyshell, and also the last with slam doors...
units. Construction started in 2001, and they were delivered between September 2001 and May 2002. They are owned by Angel Trains
Angel Trains
Angel Trains is an English Rolling Stock Operating Company created in 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. It was one of three ROSCOs...
and leased by c2c, at an initial cost of £900 a day (including rental and maintenance). Due to the rebranding, they have a white livery with grey doors, and are internally branded to the c2c purple colour scheme with magenta
Magenta
Magenta is a color evoked by light stronger in blue and red wavelengths than in yellowish-green wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light...
handrails, magenta stickers on the inter-carriage gangway doors with c2c branding: "culture2club2commuters2culture2club2", and a light grey linoleum floor with white, dark grey and light purple flecks. The "door out of order" display is above the door close button, which is above the door open button, unlike in the 357/0 units.
The last slam-door units were withdrawn on 31 March 2003, resulting in c2c being the first train operating company
Train operating company
The term train operating company is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand...
(TOC) to replace its entire fleet with new trains.
Units are numbered in the range 357201-228. The formation of each 4-car unit is identical to that of the Class 357/0 units. Individual vehicles are numbered as follows:
- 68601-68628 - DMOS-A
- 74701-74728 - MSO
- 74601-74628 - PTOSL
- 68701-68728 - DMOS-B
Livery, problems and maintenance
In June 2001, units 357 025 and 357 027 had vinylVinyl
A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...
stickers applied with two prototype variants of the proposed purplish blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
and magenta
Magenta
Magenta is a color evoked by light stronger in blue and red wavelengths than in yellowish-green wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light...
c2c livery at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane Works in Derby
Derby Carriage and Wagon Works
Derby Carriage and Wagon Works was built by the Midland Railway in Derby, England. The plant has been through many changes of ownership and is currently owned by Bombardier Transportation, a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc. of Canada. As of 2011 it is the only remaining passenger rolling stock...
. They were delivered to East Ham EMU Depot for evaluation. Each set of vinyl stickers cost about £40,000. Rollout of the new livery on the whole fleet began by mid-2002, and was completed over the next three months. Hence, although the underlying paintwork and interiors of the two sub-classes were different when delivered, their exterior appearance is identical, and the only way to distinguish them externally is by their numbering. When the Quiet Zone car was introduced in each set, this was marked on the exterior of the doors by a magenta and white sticker.
On 19 April 2004, the unusually large rate of increase in atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted into a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of Earth . In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point...
led to an airlock and failure of hydraulic pressure on eight of the Class 357 trains which caused their computer's software to lower their pantographs
Pantograph (rail)
A pantograph for rail lines is a hinged electric-rod device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric trains or trams. The pantograph typically connects to a one-wire line, with the track acting as the ground wire...
and so be unable to collect power from the overhead lines
Overhead lines
Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...
, causing service disruption. However, after their teething problems were sorted out, they have since been the most reliable fleet of EMUs in the United Kingdom, winning Best Modern Era EMU at the Golden Spanners Awards from 2005 to 2007, for an average annual miles per casualty (MPC) figure of 43,180 in 2005, 37,391 in 2006, and 45,459 in 2007 (defined as the number of miles a train runs before a defect develops causing 5 minutes or longer delay).
The Class 357 units are all normally maintained by Bombardier service technicians at c2c's East Ham Depot
East Ham Depot
East Ham EMU Depot is a depot on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line between East Ham tube station and Barking railway station with the depot code EM, between 6 to 7 miles from London Fenchurch Street station, and just west of the River Roding...
, which won the Golden Spanner Award for Maintenance Team of the Year (Rolling Stock) at the Annual National Rail Awards in 2005 and 2006 and their Shoeburyness depot.
On 14 December 2005, c2c's East Ham depot began putting advertising vinyl wraps on some carriages, starting with branding the MSO intermediate trailer car 74716 in set 357 216 as a 'Cough-Free Zone' by the cough syrup makers Benylin
Benylin
Benylin is a brand name owned by Johnson & Johnson for a range of cough, cold and flu medications. The flagship cough syrup and cold care brand is marketed in several countries as Benylin DM, for its active ingredient, dextromethorphan...
for the winter. This has not been done for quite some time.
In June 2009, c2c and Bombardier began a repainting programme on the Class 357 units beginning with 357 203. When the vinyl wraps were taken off the Class 357 units, slight corrosion caused by water getting trapped behind the vinyl was found in the aluminium around the doors, so a bodywork maintenance and repair programme was carried out. The corrosion was treated by rubbing the aluminium down and repainting it with two-pack paint. More serious corrosion caused by water seeping in through a poorly-sealed join between panels was found behind several panels on the lower part of the vehicle bodysides, which had spread to the outside. A thick, tight mastic seal was introduced between the panels to prevent this issue from re-occurring. To save money during construction, stainless steel bolts were used to secure the external aluminium panels in place; however, this resulted in galvanic corrosion of the more reactive aluminium, so the bolts have been replaced by aluminium ones. Salts in water catalyse corrosion, a problem for the c2c fleet as they run beside the sea.
After repair at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane Works in Derby, 357 203 was repainted and re-entered service on 30 July 2009. Similar work was carried out on the rest of the fleet over the next 21 months at Bombardier's Ilford Depot, where the units were repainted into their original white colour, but with dark blue doors, and branded with both "national express" and "c2c" logos in lower-case. The "Quiet Zone" stickers are now white with sky-blue lettering instead of magenta with white lettering. c2c ran a special "Farewell to the Blue Train" railtour service to commemorate the last day of running in passenger service of the blue livery on Saturday 5 March 2011.
During the winters of both 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, fine powdery snow settling on the Auxiliary Control Modules (ACMs) melted by warmer air led to water leaking into the ACMs, causing damage and their shutdown, subsequently causing passenger information system, heating, and lighting failure in some carriages. Several units also had to run in service with fewer traction motors working. The ACMs were modified in six ways to try and prevent this from recurring.
Regenerative braking
On 9 November 2006, unit 357 028 was sent to the Velim railway test circuit in the Czech Republic for safety testing to obtain certification for a regenerative brakingRegenerative brake
A regenerative brake is an energy recovery mechanism which slows a vehicle or object down by converting its kinetic energy into another form, which can be either used immediately or stored until needed...
system which had been trialled for many months on the Class 357 fleet. In March 2007, 357 028 returned from the Czech Republic, having gained safety certification, and c2c began fitting the regenerative braking systems to the rest of its Class 357 fleet, becoming the first UK train operator to do so. On 3 June 2007, the eve of World Environment Day, unit 357 010 was given an all-over green vinyl sticker livery with magenta doors and the tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
:
to highlight the completion of the scheme, which has given energy savings of up to 21%. 357 010 lost its green livery in March 2011 as part of the fleet's corrosion repair and repainting project.
Operations
The two fleets of units are used interchangeably on all c2c services on the London, Tilbury and Southend RailwayLondon, Tilbury and Southend Railway
The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway is an English railway line linking Fenchurch Street railway station in the City of London with northeast London and the entire length of the northern Thames Gateway area of southern Essex. It is currently known as the Essex Thameside Route by Network Rail...
. Trains are generally formed of a single unit (4 cars) or two units (8 cars) working in multiple during off-peak times, and strengthened to two or three units (12 cars) during the morning and evening peak times. 71 of the 74 units are required to run the current normal timetable.
Five units were loaned to sister National Express Group
National Express Group
National Express Group plc is a British transport group headquartered in Birmingham that operates bus, coach, rail and tram services in the UK, the US and Canada, Spain, Portugal and Morocco and long-distance coach routes across Europe...
operator National Express East Anglia (then branded 'one' Railway) for a period ending in 2006 to accommodate the transfer of three Class 321/3
British Rail Class 321
The British Rail Class 321 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BREL York in three batches from 1988-91. The design was successful and led to the development of the similar Class 320 and Class 322 units for use by Strathclyde PTE and Stansted Express respectively...
units to Silverlink
Silverlink
Silverlink Train Services Ltd was a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operated routes in North London and from London to Northampton...
(themselves to cover for Class 321/4 units hired to Central Trains
Central Trains
Central Trains was one of the original 25 train operating companies to emerge from the break-up of British Rail between 1994 and 1997. The company operated local, urban and secondary express services across central England and Mid Wales.-Overview:...
). The units were generally used on London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria
Southend Victoria railway station
Southend Victoria is one of two major railway stations in the town of Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England. The station is the terminus of the Shenfield to Southend Line, which is a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line...
services on the Great Eastern Main Line
Great Eastern Main Line
The Great Eastern Main Line is a 212 Kilometre major railway line of the British railway system, which connects Liverpool Street in the City of London with destinations in east London and the East of England, including Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich and several coastal resorts such as...
(GEML).
On-board television and Wi-Fi trials
In January 2005, it was announced that an on-train television service would be trialled on unit 357 014. The system consisted of six television screens and ten speakers in each carriage, and was also intended to be used to deliver real-time travel information. In June 2006 the '360 On-Board Television' service ran into financial difficulties when c2c's partners in the project, TNCI (UK), ceased trading, and the equipment was removed. c2c has indicated it will recommence the roll-out should a suitable partner be found for the scheme. The same unit, 357 014, had Wi-FiWi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
installed using equipment from Nomad Digital and T-Mobile, and tested for a little-publicised 6 month trial from 14 May 2007. The service was free to use during the trial, but there has been no further news of c2c's plans for Wi-Fi access. Full rollout of the Wi-Fi service may have been delayed for financial reasons.
Quiet Zone
In October 2007, c2c announced that the country-end carriage of each unit (i.e. Shoeburyness end of the trains) would be made into a "Quiet Zone", where the use of mobile phones and personal audio players is prohibited. The "Quiet Zone" was introduced in early 2008 and is indicated by magenta and white stickers on the outside of the carriage doors and within the carriage. A trial was carried out to install special film onto the windows of the Quiet Zone carriages to block all mobile phone and Wi-Fi signals, however it was not successful and the project was not continued.Accidents
On 5 November 2006 at about 00:30, 357 043 hit a red Ford Escort which had come off the road and crashed through a boundary fence onto the railway line. The driver of the car had lost control off New Road near the junction with Laurel Close in Leigh-on-Sea. The driver of the car and its passengers left the car before it was hit a few minutes later by the train. A police officer at the site tried to flag the train down before it reached the car but, although the train had slowed before hitting the car, it pushed the car about 100 yards along the line. The train driver and the four passengers on the train were uninjured. The left front valance of 357 043 was damaged. There are varying reports on the age of the driver and the number of passengers in the car.In November 2006, 357 028 had to have its front valance removed whilst it was undergoing testing at Velim in the Czech Republic after it ran over two dogs and a deer, and almost ran over a local hunter, which were not expecting a train to pass at up to 100 mph (160.9 km/h) as the test track is not used very often.
On 9 December 2006, two Class 357 units, 357 002 and 357 043, were involved in a minor incident at East Ham Depot when one unit scraped down the side of the other. The undamaged driving car of 357 002 was used to temporarily replace the damaged driving car of 357 043 to form a hybrid unit, which was renumbered 357 099 under the TOPS
TOPS
Total Operations Processing System, or TOPS, is a computer system for managing the locomotives and rolling stock owned by a rail system...
system and remained in service with a guard due to the position of the Driver Only Operation (D.O.O.) mirrors. The damaged units, formed mostly of 357 002 with the driving car of 357 043, were renumbered 357 098 and sent to Crewe Electric TMD
Crewe Electric TMD
Crewe Electric TMD is an AC electric locomotive Traction Maintenance Depot situated to the north of Crewe railway station. The depot is situated on the south side of the Crewe to Chester railway line opposite Crewe Works on Victoria Avenue. The depot is operated by EWS...
for repairs. Both trains were repaired and then had their normal numbering restored. They were due to re-enter service on Friday 5 October 2007, but actually re-entered service over the weekend of 13/14 October.
These accidents and units 357 028 and 357 045 being out of service at the same time led to two spare Class 321/4
British Rail Class 321
The British Rail Class 321 alternating current electric multiple units were built by BREL York in three batches from 1988-91. The design was successful and led to the development of the similar Class 320 and Class 322 units for use by Strathclyde PTE and Stansted Express respectively...
units, 321 408 and 321 428, being loaned from sister National Express Group train operator Silverlink
Silverlink
Silverlink Train Services Ltd was a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operated routes in North London and from London to Northampton...
for three months for use at Monday-Friday peak hours on diagrams between Fenchurch Street-Pitsea via Rainham and Fenchurch Street-Laindon to cover for the unavailable Class 357 units. The Class 321 units were used with guards as they are incompatible with the positioning of c2c's face-on Driver Only Operation (D.O.O.) mirrors. http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/showthread.php?thread=2096 http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/showthread.php?thread=2661
Naming
c2c has recently named several units, many of them after longer-serving employees.- 357 001 - Barry Flaxman
- 357 002 - Arthur Lewis Stride (the founder of the London, Tilbury and Southend RailwayLondon, Tilbury and Southend RailwayThe London, Tilbury and Southend Railway is an English railway line linking Fenchurch Street railway station in the City of London with northeast London and the entire length of the northern Thames Gateway area of southern Essex. It is currently known as the Essex Thameside Route by Network Rail...
- 357 003 - Southend City on Sea (renamed in support of the town's bid for City status in 2012 at a ceremony at Southend Central station on 5th August 2011, previously named Jason LeonardJason LeonardJason Leonard OBE , also known as "The Fun Bus", is an English former rugby union prop forward who held the world record for winning the most international caps until 2005, when it was surpassed by Australia's scrum-half George Gregan...
) - 357 004 - Tony Amos
- 357 011 - John Lowing
- 357 028 - London Tilbury & Southend 150 1854-2004London, Tilbury and Southend RailwayThe London, Tilbury and Southend Railway is an English railway line linking Fenchurch Street railway station in the City of London with northeast London and the entire length of the northern Thames Gateway area of southern Essex. It is currently known as the Essex Thameside Route by Network Rail...
- this unit was sent to the railway test circuit VelimRailway test circuit Velim.The Velim test center is a railway rolling stock testing facility at Cerhenice, close to the city of Poděbrady in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic...
in the Czech Republic on 9 November 2006 to gain safety certification for the regenerative brakingRegenerative brakeA regenerative brake is an energy recovery mechanism which slows a vehicle or object down by converting its kinetic energy into another form, which can be either used immediately or stored until needed...
system later fitted to the whole fleet. - 357 029 - Thomas WhiteleggThomas WhiteleggThomas Whitelegg was born around 1836-7 in Manchester England, Thomas died at his home in Highgate village in London on 30 March 1911, aged 74. Thomas was the Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon and Marine Superintendent for the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway which today is known as c2c...
1840 - 1922 (London, Tilbury and Southend Railway locomotive superintendent) - 357 030 - Robert Harben Whitelegg 1871 - 1957
- 357 201 - Ken Bird
- 357 202 - Kenny MitchellKenny Mitchell- Amateur career :Mitchell won the New York Golden Gloves three times. He won the 112 lb Open Championships in 1978, 1979 and 1980. Mitchell was defeated in the 1977 112 lb Sub-Novice Championship by Gino Gelormino. Mitchell trained at the Morrisania Youth Center in 1977 and 1978. In 1979...
- 357 203 - Henry Pumfrett
- 357 204 - Derek Flowers
- 357 205 - John D'Silva
- 357 206 - Martin Aungier
- 357 208 - Dave DavisDave DavisDave Davis is a former wide receiver in the National Football League. Davis was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the seventh round of the 1971 NFL Draft and played two seasons with the team. He later played with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints.-References:...
in December 2007, after his 41 years' service as a driver. (From Thurrock Gazette dated Friday 5th January 2007.) - 357 209 - James Snelling
- 357 213 - Upminster I.E.C.C. (Integrated Electronic Control Centre)
- 357 217 - Allan Burnell
Fleet details
| Class | Operator | No. Built | Year Built | Cars per Set | Unit nos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 357/0 | c2c | 46 | 1999–2001 | 4 | 357001-357046 |
| Class 357/2 | 28 | 2001–2002 | 357201-357228 |